April 29, 2004

Deadly AIM

By | April 29, 2004

Over the years a number of innovations have had a significant impact on the lives of college students. Pens and pencils allowed for prelims without the pain of carving your answers into wood or stone; with the discovery of fermentation, chemistry majors began to be invited to various parties. Yet for the modern college student Instant Messaging programs have significantly changed the way that many of us communicate on campus.

The newest AIM version offers a number of features aimed at enhancing your online experience. The new version contains notifications and invisibility, along with the ability to manage multiple screen names at once. However, these features are not new to the AIM community. AIM first implemented all of them in a number of AIM add-ons and stand-alone messaging programs, which this article attempts to review. The first program on the list is Gaim. Gaim is the leading open-source messaging application. It boasts interpolarity with all the major protocols, meaning you can still talk to your one friend that uses MSN. However, as with many open-source programs, for the average user Gaim is not an adequate alternative. GAIM has limited ability in the arena of file-sharing and direct connections. The UI (user interface) is also rather clunky, although functional.

Trillian is the other major stand-alone messaging application. As with Gaim, it allows communication with users of other messaging programs. Yet, Trillian practices a tiered approach to the messaging programs. It offers a free basic program, yet most of its resources are allocated to a commercial, premium version of its messaging software. Thus, the basic version lags somewhat behind the official version of AIM. Trillian makes up for this with a number of nifty features such as a fully skin-able interface that can manage multiple screen names.

The next few programs require the installation of AIM and additional modification. I prefer this type of enhancement over the standalone program because it maintains the layout of the standard AIM interface. It also supports the functionality of the current version of AIM much more rapidly than the standalone applications. However, these programs don’t allow messaging to non-AOL protocols (so ICQ still works). All the following additions were tested on the old version of AIM. DeadAim is the only program that actually works with the new version; the other add-ons have a tendency to block the ability to instant message anyone at all.

AiMutatation is similar to Trillian in that it allows skinning on the interface. It is the only add-on that can boast this function; however, the skinning is incomplete. Away messages will not be skinned, and frankly, many of the pre-made skins are quite ugly.

Middle_man is the most promising of the add-ons. This program, along with the standard features, has two additional features called scripting and commands. The scripting feature allows you to have away messages and profiles that are dynamic. The command feature is reminiscent of the DOS. With a few keystrokes in any instant messaging window, you can go “away” or add a screen name to your buddy list, all without having to move your hand to the mouse.

DeadAim is the final and most rounded of the AIM add-ons. While this one is the most stable, it does not contain any features that are truly unique. For those users who rely on tabbed windows, DeadAim is a clear choice. The tabs are color-coded to signify the users’ actions (typing, message sent) and the taskbar button actually blinks when any of the windows receives a message. The major downside to DeadAim is that it costs a whopping $5.00 to download.

Overall, most people who use AIM add-ons and alternatives use them for the tabbed browsing, messaging while away, and message logging. I personally use DeadAim and would suggest it to anyone who wants the above specifications. Yet, I am titillated about some of the possibilities that competition can offer.

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ByApril 30, 2004

As the sun makes its inaugural appearance in Ithaca this week and Cornell students begin to shed months and months of accumulated body frost, it’s clear that heat is on people’s minds. Yet, this is old news for the red-hot softball team, which has been heating up Niemand-Robison Field all spring en route to clinching a share of the Ivy League title. Now, with the regular season over and three more non-league contests left to settle, the streaking Red has a new focus: keeping the fire alive. According to head coach Dick Blood, this task should not be too difficult. “The ladies have really played with passion lately,” Blood said. “We realize we have clinched a share of the title, but we still need to stay sharp.” The Red (35-11, 10-4 Ivy) takes on Quinnipiac at home tomorrow having won 13 of its last 14 games and the last 11 straight. Cornell’s recent dominance was rewarded again by the Ivy League this week, as senior pitcher Sarah Sterman was named Ivy pitcher of the week and junior first baseman Melissa Heintz took home Ivy player of the week honors. Sterman was instrumental in the Red’s two-game sweep of Princeton last weekend, throwing 12 innings against the Tigers and posting a 1.08 ERA for the week. Heintz went 11-24 with three doubles and three home runs, raising her season batting average to .339. Individual accolades aside, the players on the squad are still salivating for one final trophy: the Ivy League championship award, and with it, an automatic berth to the NCAA regional tournament. Although Cornell has already earned its share of the title, Blood and his squad are not very excited with the prospect of sharing it with anyone else. “We would love to have Yale beat [Brown],” Blood said. “The major consideration is who gets the NCAA bid.” Brown is the only team left that still has a shot to claim a share of the title. With an 8-4 league record thus far, the Bears have to beat Yale twice tomorrow in Providence to equal the Red’s record. If Brown is swept or splits the doubleheader, Cornell will be the sole possessor of the top spot. Should Brown sweep the Bulldogs, the Bears will play the Red in a one-game playoff to decide which team gets to compete in the NCAA tournament. With so much on the line, will the Red be watching the scoreboard in Providence? “We hate to admit it, but we probably will be,” Blood said. In the meantime, the Red will be hosting the Bobcats (21-20 16-4 NEC), in a doubleheader of its own tomorrow. Quinnipiac currently sits in second place in the Northeastern Conference, having won three of their last four games. The Red will likely face the anchors of the Bobcats’ pitching staff, sophomore Kim Norman (9-3, 2.33 ERA) and senior Melissa Reynolds (9-7, 2.37 ERA). The two have combined for 140 strikeouts this season, walking only 53 batters in the process. Quinnipiac’s lineup is led by sophomore Alyssa Mansolf, a Connecticut native who boasts a batting average of .306 and has notched 33 triples on the year. The outfielder also has driven in eight runs thus far. Sterman and company will also be watching for Norman on the other side of the plate, as the pitcher / outfielder has knocked in 13 runs of her own this season from the batters’ box. Yet, as usual, Blood and the rest of the squad will be taking the same calm, get-the-job-done attitude to the field tomorrow. And when the Red’s offense and defense are clicking as well as they are now, that job will be all the easier to accomplish. “We plan on staying level-headed and businesslike,” Blood said. Junior Lauren May continues to strike fear into opposing pitchers’ hearts, leading the Red with 14 home runs and 53 RBIs. The power-hitting shortstop has also proved to be virtually indestructible, starting all 46 games for the Red this season and accumulating a Bonds-esque slugging percentage of .827. Senior Kate Varde has also made a convincing final statement in the realm of softball lore, producing nine home runs and 30 RBIs in her farewell campaign. The center fielder out of New Trier High School also leads the team in runs scored with 46. Archived article by Kyle SheahenSun Assistant Sports Editor

ByApril 30, 2004

The magic number is one for the Princeton baseball team to repeat as Gehrig Division champions this weekend in a four-game set with the Red. The two teams, which have met 189 times — Princeton holds a 114-73-2 edge over Cornell — will play a twin-bill at Hoy Field today before heading to New Jersey for another doubleheader Sunday afternoon at Clarke Field. The Tigers need just one win over the Red to clinch the top spot in the four-team division. Yet, a clean sweep of the Tigers by the Red would lead to a showdown between Cornell and Columbia in a makeup game to decide the division champion. Princeton (21-17, 9-7 Ivy) could have locked up the division crown last weekend against Penn, but the Quakers rallied to win the last two games of the four-game series, winning 8-3 and 9-7. In the first doubleheader, the Tigers feasted on Penn’s pitching staff, putting up a combined 36 runs in the two wins. The 36 runs marked a new school record for total runs in a doubleheader, which the Tigers had set just a week prior. The powerful Tiger offense notched a 13-run sixth inning in game one of the doubleheader, which they held on to win, 22-11. Princeton lost their lone midweek contest, a 6-4 decision at the hands of St. John’s, despite junior outfielder B.J. Szymanski’s sixth home run of the year. Meanwhile, the Red comes in to the weekend after losing two of three games to Columbia and splitting a doubleheader with Siena. The Red took game one of the doubleheader with the Saints, 2-1, behind a strong effort from senior Dan Gala. Gala went four innings, scattered four hits and allowed no runs to improve to 3-4 on the year. Gala had solid relief in the form of sophomore Michael Hudson, who went two innings, giving up just one earned run on one hit and a walk, and freshman Blake Hamilton, who earned his first career save after pitching a scoreless seventh inning. A large chunk of the offensive production for the Red came from sophomore Seth Gordon, who exploded for three RBIs on four hits and two runs scored. Gordon, the new leadoff man for the Red, has upped his batting average to .287 with 15 RBIs. Last season, the Tigers took three out of four from the Red to clinch the division as well as home field for the Ivy League Championship Series (ILCS). The Red took the first game of that series before getting blitzed by a combined score of 32-5 in the final three contests. Looking ahead to the ILCS, the winner of the Gehrig Division will have to play two of three games on the road at either Dartmouth or Harvard. The Crimson need to win three games against the Green to force a one-game playoff, or a clean sweep to win the Red Rolfe Division. Archived article by Chris MascaroSun Assistant Sports Editor